Curriculum Overview

At Jo Richardson we offer a rich, broad and balanced curriculum which prepares students for the next phases in their education, training or employment and allows all students to ACHIEVE their full potential.

At Jo Richardson we offer a rich, broad and balanced curriculum which prepares students for the next phases in their education, training or employment and allows all students to ACHIEVE their full potential.

We have an extensive range of extracurricular clubs and opportunities for students outside the taught curriculum including five days where we collapse our timetable to enable students to participate in exciting enrichment opportunities both in school, trips into London and abroad. Further details of our extracurricular program can be found by following the link to our extra-curricular page.

Literacy and numeracy are embedded within all subject across the curriculum. We also have a number of literacy programs such as “Lexia” and “Right to Write” which support students in developing these essential skills. Further details can be found on our literacy and numeracy pages.

KS3

Our KS3 curriculum helps prepare students for the demands of KS4. Details of the lessons taught and the amount of hours allocated to each subject can be found in the table below. Please the individual subject pages for detailed content on the topics taught in each year.

Support for students who enter below age related expectations is through our whole school literacy program, and through specialist teaching in the English and maths department as part of our Nurture curriculum. Some students receive additional support through our Student development department (SDD). Further details of the programs they run can be found on the SDD department page.

KS3 Curriculum plan (number represent hours per fortnight)

Subject

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

English

8

8

8

Maths

8

8

8

Science

6

6

6

Art

2

2

2

Dance and PE

4

4

4

Drama

2

2

2

DT and Food

3

3

4

French and Spanish

4

4

4

Geography

3

2

2

History

2

3

2

ICT

2

2

2

PDE

2

2

2

Music

2

2

2

RE

2

2

2

KS4

Our KS4 curriculum offers a wide choice of subjects with many different pathways. At the end of year 9 students receive high quality careers education guidance to support them in making their option choices. All students will study a core curriculum consisting of:

English language and English literature GCSE

Maths GCSE (Statistics GCSE for top two sets)

Dual Science GCSE

PDE (PSHE and RS)

PE

Students then choose one subject from the following options:

Computer Science GCSE

French GCSE

Geography GCSE

History GCSE

Spanish GCSE

Students are then given three free option choices. This means our students can follow a number of different pathways at KS4. For details of the content and exam boards we use please see the individual subject pages. Available options are listed below:

Art GCSE

Business studies GCSE,

Business studies first award BTEC

Citizenship GCSE, Computer science GCSE

Construction first award BTEC

Dance GCSE, Drama GCSE

DT product design GCSE

Economics GCSE

Engineering first award BTEC

Geography GCSE

History GCSE

ICT OCR award

Media studies GCSE

French GCSE

Spanish GCSE

Music GCSE

PE GCSE

PE first award BTEC

Religious studies GCSE

Statistics GCSE (if not in top two sets)

Triple science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics GCSE)

Option support is offered to a small number of students in our SDD department who may struggle with four options and require study support during the week.

KS4 Curriculum plan (number represent hours per fortnight)

Subject

Year 10

Year 11

English

8

10

Maths

10

8

Science

8

8

PDE (PSHE/RS)

2

2

PE

2

2

Option 1

5

5

Option 2

5

5

Option 3

5

5

Option 4

5

5

For a small number of students an academic pathway in school is not suitable. We have a number of students who attend college in KS4 and follow an alternative curriculum. We work closely with the local authority and outside providers such as Barking college to provide a variety of vocational pathways for these students.

KS5

At KS5 we work alongside three other schools in the local area to form the southern consortium. This enables us to offer a wide variety of courses for our students. Details of the options available can be found on the Southern Consortium website or on our sixth form pages.

Details of the contents of the courses taught on site at Jo Richardson can be found on individual subject pages.

If you have any queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the school office on 020 8270 6222 or contact Ms L Keane at LKeane@jorichardson.org.uk